History tells us that ever since Jesus went heavenward, believers in every generation were sure that He would return in their lifetime. And I’ve heard people refer to Matthew 24 OVER AND OVER again, pointing to events they see in the news and claiming that Scripture is being fulfilled before their very eyes. It’s called confirmation bias. Some of you know what I’m talking about. Wars and rumors of wars. Nation rising against nation. Famines and earthquakes in various places. Yet all of these things have existed in every century.
We keep claiming to be the ones who have successfully decoded Bible prophecy. And yes, there is a mystery to Scripture. But there’s no mystery here. We’ve just made it unnecessarily complicated, and we keep getting our predictions wrong. The prerequisite for Jesus’ return can be found in the same chapter I mentioned above—but in just one verse, Matthew 24:14: “And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come” (emphasis added).
There it is like a flashing neon light, yet most readers choose to ignore this verse. To put it another way, Jesus won’t come back until His message of salvation is shared to every ethnic group on the planet. We don’t know if this means fulfilled cumulatively through time, or if each ethnicity must know of Him at the same time. And theologians and sociologists don’t agree on what constitutes an ethnic group either. Does the definition begin and end with a distinct language or are there other ethnographic markers?
Now that I’ve laid this groundwork, let me state the case for why I believe this verse and that Jesus’ return is closer than ever to being fulfilled. There are three realities that exist today that have NEVER existed before. Here they are in no particular order:
- Humankind has the ability to destroy itself and the planet multiple times over. Pick your poison (perhaps literally): nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons are too numerous and deadly to count and are already in the hands of people who want and plan to use them. If not for the hand of God, our mutually assured destruction would have happened by now.
- Millions (not hundreds or thousands) of Christians are dedicated to serving as short- and long-term missionaries, financial supporters, Bible translators, and Bible distributors to the far reaches of the earth. There is a veritable army of believers that Americans cannot fathom who are sharing openly and privately about Christ in the midst of persecution and opposition. God is using them, the Holy Spirit, and His Word to reap a spiritual harvest not seen before. You’re not hearing about it because it’s taking place in the Global South (largely the southern hemisphere) in places like South America, South Asia, and Africa.
- Technology has made the world one neighborhood. I can tell you from experience that cell phones are owned and used by the poorest and most remotely located peoples on earth. The pervasiveness of the internet has only taken things a huge step further. And now, we are rapidly developing artificial intelligence, which will bring irreparable harm to the human race. But before this happens, it will rapidly speed up the translation of the Bible into all known languages. In fact, a consortium of Bible translation organizations is working together to achieve this very thing by 2033.
Our ability to destroy everyone and everything, the massive number of Christians willing to give their lives to tell others, and the exponential growth of technology are all leading us toward an inevitable conclusion. Jesus will return soon. We don’t know the day or the hour, but we can hold up Matthew 24:14 alongside the present realities just described and see it is incredibly close.
Let me leave you with a theory to support my argument. I use this italicized word on purpose because nothing is proven until we’re staring our Savior in the face. There is a notable belief held by some going all the way back to the early centuries after Jesus went heavenward. This belief really has two versions that share the same timeline. First, a verse to provide some context, 2 Peter 3:8: “With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.”
The first is known as the Millennial Day Theory. If the six days of creation in Genesis are taken literally (about which Christendom is divided), then just as there were six days of creation and one day of rest, there will be six thousand years of creation and a thousand-year reign of Christ. Other places in the Bible that had six days followed by a distinct seventh are Moses on Mount Sinai, the destruction of Jericho, and Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration. The problem with the 6,000 years is no one knows the exact day Adam was created, much less if the clock started when he was created or when he sinned. And if the Genesis creation account isn’t literal, then much of the impact is lost.
Similarly, just as Jesus was in the grave two days and was resurrected by God on the third day, so He will be gone for two thousand years and return for a thousand years. There are other notable examples in the Bible of a third day bringing spiritual breakthrough or restoration, including God giving Moses the Ten Commandments, King Hezekiah’s healing, Esther going before the king, Israel’s future restoration in Hosea 6:2, and Jonah and the giant fish.
Most biblical scholars date Jesus’ death, burial, resurrection, and ascension to either AD 30 or 33. So, whether or not this theory is correct, you will probably hear increasing hype about this possibility of the Lord’s return as 2030 and 2033 approach.
We’re not going to delve into the rapture debate here because there’s even less agreement among Christians whether this event will happen before, during, or after the final seven years, the second half of which is known as the Great Tribulation (see Daniel 9 and Revelation 11 for more context). I call myself a pan-tribulation rapture believer—it will all pan out in the end!
Well, what do you do as a believer with this information that is equally exhilarating and frightening? The same thing you would do if you didn’t believe a single word I’ve written. You would ask God what He wants to do with your life, and you would pledge to walk in faith and obedience to Him. For whether we see Christ return in this life or after our death, we should desire to be found faithful until the end. That’s why Feed the Hunger is dedicated to feeding the spiritual and physical hunger in as many people as we can through strategic global partnerships.
One final note of sobriety. No matter how American prophetic teachers try to spin it, our country is not directly mentioned in Bible prophecy. The logical conclusion, then, is that we’re not a major player at the end. You can clearly see how our nation might not be a major player, as we currently stand at the edge of a dangerous precipice. Due to moral depravity, unpayable debt, and hostile enemies both overseas and pouring over our border, our reality could change very soon. There’s no point in sugarcoating it. This looming danger should drive us all to our knees in daily prayer—and daily action to share Jesus with our nation and world before He returns.
For more information on all these topics, you can read my devotional called Terminus: America’s Downfall & The End of the Age.
